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GHSA-j48q-4c78-rhf9

openssl-encrypt: Dynamic .so loading for Whirlpool uses broad glob pattern without integrity verification

Quick fix

GHSA-j48q-4c78-rhf9 — openssl-encrypt: upgrade to the fixed version with the command below.

pip install --upgrade 'openssl-encrypt>=1.4.0'

Details

## Severity: HIGH

### Summary

The Whirlpool hash implementation in `openssl_encrypt/modules/registry/hash_registry.py` at **lines 570-589** uses glob patterns to find `.so` modules in site-packages and loads the first match via `importlib` without verifying module integrity.

### Affected Code

```python for site_pkg in site.getsitepackages(): pattern = os.path.join(site_pkg, "whirlpool*py313*.so") py313_modules = glob.glob(pattern) if py313_modules: module_path = py313_modules[0] # Takes first match loader = ExtensionFileLoader("whirlpool", module_path) spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location("whirlpool", module_path, loader=loader) whirlpool_module = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec) spec.loader.exec_module(whirlpool_module) ```

### Impact

The glob pattern `"whirlpool*py313*.so"` is broad and takes the first match without verifying: - File hash/signature - File ownership/permissions - Whether it's a legitimate module

If an attacker can place a malicious `.so` file matching this pattern in any site-packages directory, it will be loaded and native code executed.

### Recommended Fix

- Verify the module's integrity (hash or signature) before loading - Use a specific filename rather than a glob pattern - Check file permissions and ownership

### Fix

Fixed in commit `963d0d1` on branch `releases/1.4.x` — added os.path.realpath() to resolve symlinks and validation that found .so files are within known site-packages directories before loading.

Are you affected?

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Affected packages

PyPI / openssl-encrypt
Introduced in: 0 Fixed in: 1.4.0
Fix pip install --upgrade 'openssl-encrypt>=1.4.0'

References